AA with a voucher

[maxaroni]

My DS27 was to get married in April, which they postponed until November 2020. Their honeymoon was going to be Aruba, so that was postponed as well. They had non-stop flights and all good. Their outbound flight was changed to a 1 stop, 9 hours of travel from PHL. My future daughter in law didn’t really want to deal with that. My DS would have sucked it up but she wasn’t thrilled. After talking about it, they decided to cancel Aruba and change to Jamaica. Not only was there non stop flights but they require a Covid test within 10 days of travel. Aruba is 72 hours, which a bit hard, it was just a bump in the road. They would need to be tested Saturday, as they are getting married on a Sunday and leaving Tuesday for honeymoon. If they could not get the test results in time, they could test there and quarantine at hotel until results come back...no more than 24 hours. They would need a separate health insurance policy for Aruba. So, with all of these little bumps and then the flight issue, she was just so done and frustrated. Hence, the change to Jamaica.

Okay, all good. Full refund from hotel and voucher from AA. Rebook hotel, no issues. They went to use the voucher and since they were flying first class to Aruba, they had to fly first class to Jamaica. Sounds good. Then told that the seats remaining available on the non stop flight to Jamaica were not available for the voucher. They could change the date but not available on that day. No, they didn’t want to change it. So, they have a 1 stop to Jamaica, stopping in Miami. T:hey do have the non stop coming home.

I am not sure I understand why the voucher would not be available for that flight, but at this point, we are all just at the point of let’s get the wedding and honeymoon done. 2020 is a tough year all the way around. When they rebooked for November, they never thought that this would be what we are dealing with now. They totally understand the situation on hand. It just doesn’t make sense. They even said they’d be willing to not have any voucher left and sit in coach to just have the non stop flight and was told they can’t do that. Also, at time of booking it was more costly to fly to Aruba over Jamaica.

 

[FCDub]

Congrats to your son.

 

[Dug720]

It's likely because the vouchers have to be redeemed for not only the same class of carriage but also with the same rate code (not the same actual rate, but rate code). It's likely that the code the original flight was booked under was not available for the non-stop.

Restrictions on vouchers are pretty severe - have to be used by the same person they were originally for, same class, etc.

 

[maxaroni]

It's likely because the vouchers have to be redeemed for not only the same class of carriage but also with the same rate code (not the same actual rate, but rate code). It's likely that the code the original flight was booked under was not available for the non-stop.

Restrictions on vouchers are pretty severe - have to be used by the same person they were originally for, same class, etc.

I didn’t think of that. Thank you. They could get the non stop flight the day prior but not that day. Makes sense for the rate code.

Yes, it certainly isn’t the ideal situation but too many things were happening with the Aruba trip that they had had enough. In March the flight was canceled so they had full refund. They knew they would get a voucher this time, but didn’t know all the restrictions. At the end of the day, they are happy.

 

[Lilsia]

They made a great choice in switching from Aruba to Jamaica. I have been to both and the Aruban people were extremely rude and nasty. It was obvious that they want nothing to do with tourist, even people at the resorts had an "I could care less about you" attitude. Jamaicans are wonderful.